Sterling could well be in for a rough ride today

Published on Wednesday 23rd November 2011 in Advice on Making International Payments by raff

Sterling could well be in for a rough ride today when the latest Bank of England minutes are released at 9:30am. The Bank of England have already lowered growth forecasts in the UK in an announcement earlier this month, and that coupled with the re-introduction of quantitative easing could dampen any demand for Sterling. It will be interesting to see how the minutes are received by markets, but based on recent movement in Sterling I would suggest many are looking for a negative outlook from them.

Europe’s debt crisis deepens as analysts are suggesting that the debt burden has started to affect growth prospects in the region. Data released shortly may suggest that manufacturing in Europe’s two largest economies Germany and France has declined over the last month and market sentiment definitely seems to favour a weaker Euro at present. The US Dollar is firmly grasping its safe haven status once again and we could well see further Dollar strength before the week is out. Levels below 1.55 for GBP/USD and 1.34 for EUR/USD are now looking ever more possible.

The US Federal Reserve is looking to provide the markets with some confidence in the US Banking System by telling 31 of the US’s largest banks that they need to test their loan portfolios to be certain they have enough capital to withstand any potential losses if we see a ‘deep recession’. I don’t know about you but testing for that scenario in the first place doesn’t inspire much confidence in me.